Real Madrid’s Achraf Hakimi tops Morocco’s 23-man squad for World Cup

The Champions League winner headlines the final list released by the Atlas Lions for the global showpiece

Real Madrid’s Achraf Hakimi highlights Morocco’s 23-man squad for the World Cup in Russia.

The 19-year-old defender, who was part of Zinedine Zidane’s Champions League winning team in the just concluded season will be making his bow at the global tournament following his inclusion in Herve Renard’s final list.

Also making the cut include Juventus defender Mehdi Benatia, Malatyaspor forward Khalid Boutaib and Malaga’s Youssef En Nesyri.

The north Africans will take on Slovakia on Monday evening before they slug it out with Estonia on Saturday in their final friendly game before the tournament.

They will be hoping to manoeuvre their ways past Iran, Portugal and Spain in Group B.

Full Squad

Goalkeepers: Mounir El Kajoui [Numancia], Yassine Bounou [Girona], Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti [Ittihad Tanger].

Defenders: Mehdi Benatia [Juventus], Romain Saiss [Wolves], Manuel Da Costa [Basaksehir], Nabil Dirar [Fenerbahce], Achraf Hakimi [Real Madrid], Hamza Mendyl [Lille].

Midfielders: M'barek Boussoufa [Al Jazira], Karim El Ahmadi [Feyenoord], Youssef Ait Bennasser [Caen], Sofyan Amrabat [Feyenoord], Younes Belhanda [Galatasaray], Faycal Fajr [Getafe], Amine Harit [Schalke 04].

Forwards: Khalid Boutaib [Malatyaspor], Aziz Bouhaddouz [Saint Pauli], Ayoub El Kaabi [Renaissance Berkane], Nordin Amrabat [Leganes], Mehdi Carcela [Standard de Liege], Hakim Ziyech [Ajax], Youssef En Nesyri [Malaga].